POL Champ and Runner-up

4 0f 6 – Poetry

In an earlier post during the past week you read about the 10 students from Maine high schools who were finalists the Maine Poetry Out Loud program. After three rounds of recitations Emily Paruk, a senior from Gorham High School emerged to represent Maine at the National Poetry Out Loud event on May 2. If she is successful on that day Emily will compete in the national finals on May 27. The runner-up is Helen Strout, a senior at Cape Elizabeth High School.

Emily Paruk recited Once the World Was Perfect by Joy Harjo, Fairy-tale Logic by A.E. Stallings, and view Emily reciting  “Often Rebuked, Yet Always Back Returning” by Emily Bronte below.

View Helen Strout reciting “I Know, I Remember, But How Can I Help You?” by Hayden Carruth below.

Maine’s Poetry Out Loud program is organized by the Maine Arts Commission in partnership with the National Endowment for the Arts and the Poetry Foundation.

For more information about Maine Poetry Out Loud, visit MaineArts.com or contact Meg Fournier, Interim Director of Media and Performing Arts, Maine Arts Commission at megan.b.fournier@maine.gov. More than four million students have participated in Poetry Out Loud over the past 16 years, many advancing from classroom competitions to school competitions to state competitions to, finally, the national finals. For more information about the national Poetry Out Loud program, visit poetryoutloud.org.